Recommending Rockbox/Recommending a player

[thenrik]

I have a Gigabeat F40, available on Ebay for about $100. I bought one for my wife and helped a friend buy one as well. I'm just recommending Gigabeats because I have one and know they can be purchased for $100.

Leaving out Ipods, not available at an inexpensive price, Rockbox supports Archos, Iriver, Sansa, Sandisk and Iaudio. The reason to purchase any of these models, including the Gigabeat, would be to install Rockbox.

Looking down the road, would any of these players have hardware advantages such as radio or better video capabilities that would make it a better buy than the Gigabeat?

Could anyone with experience using a variety of different models comment on their relative strength and weaknesses with Rockbox's current and future development.

Again when I recommend Rockbox, I'm recommending the alternative firmware. Should I keep on recommending the Gigabeat F40 to friends as the vehicle or other models and why.

Thanks,

Tom

[JdGordon]

http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/DeviceChart and http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/FeatureComparison

[thenrik]

Thanks much for the comparison chart.

I'd still like to hear some subjective opinions on why users like one player over the other.

Thanks,

Tom

[lights0ut]

while the ipod is probably the most stylish, and the most widely adpoted player on the market, it's hardware does not do the device's fame sufficient justice. The gigabeat is what I feel to be rockbox's best player. The large capacity, good battery life, monstrous 300MHz processor, best video playback and screen rotation patch make it the top dog. Even without the screen rotation I would be making my own wps's.

[Toxikator]

Honestly I like the iPod for the scrollwheel. saves me having to lift my fingers. Also the screen looks nice; other than that it's not really 100% with Rockbox right now (especially with battery life, plus if you want to do real cool stuff like accelerated scrolling you need to use an unsupported build)

[Llorean]

You don't have to lift your fingers on any target I own.

You just press a button and hold it, you don't even have to MOVE your fingers. (Except on my Sansa and iPod, which have wheels).

[Toxikator]

Hm. But I'd still prefer the scroll since it feels more tactile and less "press-and-wait".

[AlexP]

I have a Gigabeat F40 and a iRiver H140 (with a 60 gb disk).  I prefer the H140, as although it lacks a nice colour screen it has a radio and both line and optical in and outs, which make it so much more flexible than any other player.  Purely for audio, H1x0 wins.

[markun]

The headphone-out of the Gigabeat F40 sounds a lot better than that of the iriver h120 (which is noisy). Also, the volume control doesn't influence the line-out of the F40 which it does for the h120.

[AlexP]

The headphone-out of the Gigabeat F40 sounds a lot better than that of the iriver h120 (which is noisy). Also, the volume control doesn't influence the line-out of the F40 which it does for the h120.

That's certainly true, I think it is related to impedance of headphones as well.  Either way, both are excellent choices and you will find the gigabeat much easier to find.

[Sherv]

My first MP3 player was the Archos Jukebox 6000 and I upgraded to the Recorder and FM Recorder...when those all croaked (inevitably with Archos' products) I was also in the market for a solid MP3 player which supported Rockbox and I settled on the iAudio X5. I've been using it since December and it's utterly fantastic! Great build quality, excellent Rockbox support...there are a few really nice custom builds out there for it too, if you're into that. I highly recommend it as I'm not a fan of any of the iPod incarnations.

[mgl888]

well the gigabeat certainly worked out well for me. I was disappointed at first with the original firmware, but rockbox allowed me to discover unimaginable features from the player. It's definitely well armed in terms of hardware, and with the dock/usb port I can see a lot of development on it.